We explore the intersection of creativity, media, and education to enhance human potential through advanced digital technologies. Our work includes developing interactive AI that enables smarter, more intuitive user experiences across diverse fields. Central to our approach is the creation of fair, transparent, and accountable AI systems that prioritize inclusivity and equitable access.

We aim to design technologies for collective work and living, connecting people and bringing large groups of actors together in daily life and work environments. Future technologies should connect people, create comfortable and personalized work environments, and contribute to a sustainable society. As a Flanders Make core lab, we are in particular interested in transforming work environments for the manufacturing industry, creating digital support tools to make work more efficient, enjoyable, sustainable and healthy. 

We research the role of technology in transitioning materials, organizations, and production processes towards sustainability. Our focus includes digital solutions for repurposing landscapes, industrial sites, work processes and work and living spaces. By making design processes open, comprehensible and transparent, we foster broader stakeholder engagement. As part of this research theme, we engage a.o. in living labs, participatory design workshops and other methods that ensure the direct involvement of people in the design of things, spaces and technologies they use.

Example Projects

We help organizations harness the power of AI to enable smarter, data-driven decision-making. Our approach combines process and data mining, explainable AI, and interactive AI solutions to deliver actionable insights. These technologies are applied across areas such as business process optimization, auditing, and behavioral analytics, driving greater efficiency and transparency.

We believe that AI should play a central role in advancing human capabilities through intelligent decision-making and data-driven insight. By exploring, designing, and implementing AI solutions that support education, creativity, healthcare, and professional development, we aim to empower individuals and organizations alike. These tools not only enhance business intelligence but also promote informed choices and strategic thinking across domains. Ensuring that AI systems are accessible, inclusive, and easy to use helps unlock their full potential—enabling people to improve the quality of their work, their life, make better decisions, and drive meaningful progress in both their personal and professional lives.

Example Projects

We enhance work environments through immersive XR (Extended Reality) solutions that transform how people interact with their environment. By leveraging AI-powered virtual training, digital twins, and augmented reality, we deliver impactful applications for industry, government and healthcare. Our focus is on ensuring accessibility, fostering collaboration, and enabling personalized digital interactions adapting to individual needs and contexts.

A seamless digital environment requires a safe, accessible, and immersive virtual counterpart. Our research focuses on Mixed, Augmented, Extended and Virtual Reality (MAXVR) to enhance human perception and interaction in digital spaces, making virtual collaboration, training, and exploration more natural and effective.

We leverage photorealistic visualizations, real-time tracking, and adaptive rendering to create environments where users can move freely beyond confined physical spaces. This includes light-field visualizations, spatially-aware virtual interactions, and AI-driven cognitive support, ensuring accessibility for diverse users and tasks.

Our extensive MAXVR infrastructure supports cutting-edge VR, AR, MR, and XR applications, integrating haptic feedback, eye tracking, large-area tracking, and hybrid virtual twins for real-world impact in industry, healthcare, and education. Our infrastructure is available for externals and research partners (more information available soon) to support and boost their digital transformation needs.

Example Projects

We conduct research on AI and digital tools to drive sustainable business transformation. Our work focuses on smart automation, digital manufacturing, and the integration of sustainable design practices. By leveraging AI and IoT, we aim to optimize industrial processes and support more efficient, forward-looking approaches to urban planning.

Our research aims to democratize fabrication and manufacturing - supporting a wide and diverse community of makers, creators and enthousiast to design, make and use things. Our work spans fabrication, electronics, creative design and human-computer interaction, enabling objects like textiles, silicone, paper, and glass to sense, compute, and respond to human interactions.

We invest in a Personal Fabrication and Digital Manufacturing Infrastructure; we have various robot setups, 3D printers, laser cutters, assembly stations, crafting environments  and both low-fidelity and high-fidelity (physical) prototyping tools that support our research. We also o the operational management of the UHasselt/PXL Makerspace,  This infrastructure allows us to collaborate with both external partners as well as colleagues on real-life and high impact solutions.

Example Projects